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https://www.positive.news/society/can-the-inner-development-goals-help-us-create-a-more-sustainable-future/>
"Six years. That’s the target. A mere 72 months to set the world to rights and
deliver on the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs). It’s a long to-do list.
Eliminate poverty, reach zero hunger, achieve gender equality, tackle the
climate crisis. So, will we do it?
The United Nations is putting on a brave face. Its official message: “Now is
not the time to panic or lose hope.” Invest in the right “science” and
“evidence-based solutions”, the global umbrella organisation maintains, and we
can still usher in a fairer, safer, greener world.
A group of concerned academics, educators and other big brains respectfully
disagree. Not because they are cynics or technophobes. If smart innovations or
breakthrough policies pop up, they are all for embracing them. Where the
advocates of the Inner Development Goals differ is around where the focus of
our collective energies should lie.
For decades, the world’s best minds have looked externally – to engineering,
economics, medicine, conservation and so on – to create a more sustainable
future for all. What they’ve neglected, or at least downplayed, is a dose of
introspection. If only we could learn to be more self-aware then our prospects
of success would improve exponentially.
So argues Daniel Hires, a former social entrepreneur and now the marketing
mouthpiece for the movement, which counts 400 ‘hubs’ of loosely knit followers
dotted around the world. As he puts it: “Pushing ahead with renewable energy or
recycling your trash, all that stuff is great; but it’d be even more meaningful
for us to transcend our current way of being and show more compassion.”
The idea to look inside ourselves for answers is as old as the hills. Yogis,
philosophers and spiritual gurus of all colours have taught that the search for
true happiness and fulfilment lies within us. Where the Inner Development Goals
diverge is in their application of that thinking to the exterior world of human
progress – and, more specifically, to the seemingly ill-fated SDGs."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
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mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
